Even though their 50.000 inhabitants are officially citizens of the Danish state, the Islands have their own political institutions and a high degree of self-governance, with pro-independence parties currently in power. Strange as it may seem, we are not referring to Greenland but the Faroe Islands, a stateless nation smaller than Luxembourg consisting of eighteen islands with Tórshavn as a capital and Faroese as the own language.

The Faroese Islands constitute an autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948 and enjoy a degree of self-governance which allows them to retain control of most matters except defence, foreign affairs -although they have their own foreign affairs department - and the legal system.

The current coalition in power is made up of two pro-independence parties (Republic and Centre Party) and the Social Democrat Party (moderate unionists). One of the initiatives proposed by the new cabinet formed after elections held on January 19th is to make a referendum on the adoption of a new Constitution. If the new text was approved, the Faroese Islands would be even closer to full independence. (See news at MónDivers)

The Faroese people already declared their wish to become independent in 1947 as the vote in favour of secession won (only by a very small margin of more than 1%). However, Denmark refused to concede independence to the island group and negotiated the current home-rule status, under which devolution of powers and a financial compensation of about 10% of the Faroese GDP was granted. The latter is the main reason given by those who are against independence for arguing in favour of maintaining ties with Denmark.

Some of the media in the Faroe Islands are Útvarp Føroya (public radio), Sjónvarp Føroya (public television), els diaris Dimmalætting and Sosialurin (newspapers) and Vikublaðið (weekly newspaper).

See Faroe Islands profile for further information.